Binary Definition and 603 Threads

A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common barycenter. Systems of two or more stars are called multiple star systems. These systems, especially when more distant, often appear to the unaided eye as a single point of light, and are then revealed as multiple by other means.
The term double star is often used synonymously with binary star; however, double star can also mean optical double star. Optical doubles are so called because the two stars appear close together in the sky as seen from the Earth; they are almost on the same line of sight. Nevertheless, their "doubleness" depends only on this optical effect; the stars themselves are distant from one another and share no physical connection. A double star can be revealed as optical by means of differences in their parallax measurements, proper motions, or radial velocities. Most known double stars have not been studied adequately to determine whether they are optical doubles or doubles physically bound through gravitation into a multiple star system.
Binary star systems are very important in astrophysics because calculations of their orbits allow the masses of their component stars to be directly determined, which in turn allows other stellar parameters, such as radius and density, to be indirectly estimated. This also determines an empirical mass-luminosity relationship (MLR) from which the masses of single stars can be estimated.
Binary stars are often resolved as separate stars, in which case they are called visual binaries. Many visual binaries have long orbital periods of several centuries or millennia and therefore have orbits which are uncertain or poorly known. They may also be detected by indirect techniques, such as spectroscopy (spectroscopic binaries) or astrometry (astrometric binaries). If a binary star happens to orbit in a plane along our line of sight, its components will eclipse and transit each other; these pairs are called eclipsing binaries, or, together with other binaries that change brightness as they orbit, photometric binaries.
If components in binary star systems are close enough they can gravitationally distort their mutual outer stellar atmospheres. In some cases, these close binary systems can exchange mass, which may bring their evolution to stages that single stars cannot attain. Examples of binaries are Sirius, and Cygnus X-1 (Cygnus X-1 being a well-known black hole). Binary stars are also common as the nuclei of many planetary nebulae, and are the progenitors of both novae and type Ia supernovae.

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  1. P3dr0

    A Non-sinusoidal waveform model

    Hi, I am a ninth-grade student from Portugal with nothing to do, and I have decided that I want to build a simple regression algorithm in Desmos (the online calculator) to fit random binary inputs and maybe predict the next binary digits (although that part may take a considerable amount of...
  2. R

    B Binary variables (Absolute values)

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  3. Malapine

    Habitable planet at L4/L5 of binary gas giants?

    Would it be plausible to have two gas giants orbiting each other, a few million km apart, with a terrestrial planet at their mutual L4 or L5 point so that they both appear as visible disks fixed in the sky? Or would the terrestrial planet not be stable there and end up ejected?
  4. Mayhem

    B Operator that returns unique number of binary matrix

    If we have an arbitrary square matrix populated randomly with 1s and 0s, is there an operator which will return a unique number for each configuration of 1s and 0s in the matrix? i.e. an operation on $$ \begin{pmatrix} 1 &0 &0 \\ 1 & 0 & 1\\ 0 & 1 & 0 \end{pmatrix} $$ would return something...
  5. PhysicsRock

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  6. V

    Comp Sci Binary Encoding for 16 Bit Architecture

    In class we were given the example of a 32-bit architecture, so the opcode has 5 bits, register A had four bits, register B had four bits, the destination register had 4 bits and the offset was 15 bits, this was how it was done for "add" instruction. But when I was further reading about it...
  7. Sciencemaster

    I Database of binary star data info within 10 PC of Earth

    I'm looking for a database of binary stars within 10 PC of Earth, including information such as eccentricity of orbits, their distance from one another, etc. I'm hoping to find a list with this information, or just a collection of pages with this information. I've tried Simbad but I can't find...
  8. V

    Comp Sci Digitial Logic and Binary Counter

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  9. Rikudo

    Fictitious force in a binary stars

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  10. M

    Use the binary exponentiation algorithm to compute....

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  11. karush

    MHB Is the Calculation of $(3 \diamond 8) \square 2 = 1940$ Correct?

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  12. karush

    MHB What is the Binary Operator $\oplus$ and its Significance?

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  13. A

    B Mass transfer between neutron stars in a binary pair

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  14. Arman777

    Understanding the binary transformation of strings and integers

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  15. B

    Why are structs used for linked lists and classes used for binary trees?

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  16. Amathproblem22

    MHB How Can I Easily Tackle Binary and Hexadecimal Problems?

    I don't need help with a problem just help with easy ways of tackling the problems. Below are my current methods. (Hopefully, all is correct I was in a rush). Binary to Decimal: 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 I already know 128+64+32= 224 so then 16+1=17, meaning 224+17=241...
  17. lomidrevo

    I Gravitational Waves Emitted by a Binary System

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  18. norobinhood

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  19. S

    Converting State Vectors to Keplerian Orbital Elements for Binary Objects

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  20. S

    I Is there a theorem that a set of binary swaps can affect any permutation?

    Is there a theorem that states that a set of binary swaps can result in any permutation? For example, the original set (1,2,3,4,5) can have the swap (24) and result in (1,4,3,2,5). is there a set of specific swaps for each net result permutation?
  21. A

    An array problem involving a recursive binary search

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  22. T

    B Measuring distance between two stars in a binary system

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  23. Y

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  24. D

    I Remains of collapsed stars as touching binary planets?

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  25. Kate_C

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  26. Addez123

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  27. A

    Help on how to find stellar radius with an eclipsing binary system

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  28. Dada

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  29. R

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  30. R

    Engineering Simple Binary Subtraction Question

    Problem shown above. Work shown below. My question is, at the final step, is this a negative one? I can't borrow from anything as there are no more 1's. The solution I've found online just puts a 1 out front without a minus sign and it says it borrowed a 1 to do this, but I don't know where...
  31. chemisthypnos

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  32. K

    Mass Transfer in a Binary Star System

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  33. caters

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  34. B

    Astrophysics question about a binary star system (AQA exam)

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  35. arcTomato

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  36. user366312

    Java How to send a binary stream from Java-client to C#-server via Tcp?

    The following is a client-side C# code: string Host = "localhost"; int Port = 2000; TcpClient Tcp = new TcpClient(Host, Port); NetworkStream stream = Tcp.GetStream(); reader = new BinaryReader(stream); writer = new BinaryWriter(stream); writer.Write("Hello"); string str =...
  37. T

    Binary System in circular orbit: Separation distance between stars

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  38. Z

    Calculate the time of an all-to-all broadcast for a balanced binary tree (BBT)

    Hi, I have provided a procedure for broadcast for BBT at the following link: https://cs.stackexchange.com/questions/106631/all-to-all-broadcast-on-a-balanced-binary-tree But I am not getting the correct time as asked in the question: Required Timing equation is: ##(t_s + t_w * m* p/2)logp##...
  39. R

    Help me understand this question -- "Three consecutive zeros" in a binary string

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  40. mesa

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  41. M

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  42. nothing909

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  43. cookiemnstr510510

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  44. YoungPhysicist

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    Binary search works by eliminating half of the objects in a sorted array every time,so shouldn’t it’s time complexity being ##O(\log_2 n)## instead of ##O(\log n)##?
  45. F

    Subtracting unsigned binary numbers using two methods

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  46. DarkStar42

    I Would Newton's shell theorem prevent binary planet systems?

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  47. E

    B Is everything binary on macroscopic level

    Hello, is everything binary on macroscopic level ? I know on quantum level there are multiple states, instead of binary. I can't find any studies, it seems like everything is binary on macro level, light-dark, death-life... So what would be opposite of iron, or wood, for example ? I can't think...
  48. Mr Davis 97

    I Showing that a binary operation is well-defined

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  49. Biker

    Liquid-solid phase composition: Binary phase diagrams

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